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KDE Developers Discuss Merging Libraries With Qt

Posted by samzenpus on from the merge-ahead dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A proposal has been brought up with KDE developers by Cornelius Schumacher to merge the KDE libraries with the upstream Qt project. This could potentially lead to KDE5 coming about sooner than anticipated, but there's very mixed views on whether merging kdelibs with Qt would actually be beneficial to the KDE project, which has already led to two lengthy mailing list talks (the first and second threads). What do you think?"

9 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Focus on the now. by Tamran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Keep the specifications as they are. Fix all the current issues and make a SOLID product. It's good, but could be a LOT more stable and tight. When that's done, then go for the big merge and add new features.

    Tamran

  2. What about Qt? by bieber · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure it would be convenient for the KDE folks, but wouldn't this be a little superfluous for everyone using Qt on non-KDE platforms? Qt is a pretty massive runtime as-is...piling in the KDE libraries seems to me like it would be adding a lot of weight for relatively little benefit to anyone other than KDE. I don't use KDE myself, but I have been developing for Qt for a while...anyone who knows more about the KDE libs feel free to correct me if there's actually some great benefit I'd yield from having the KDE libs included in Qt...

    1. Re:What about Qt? by KugelKurt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sure it would be convenient for the KDE folks

      If you read the mailing list threads, you'll see that many KDE people don't find that proposal convenient at all because it has the consequences of massive restructuring, different release cycles that don't match SC's, Nokia's currently lacking code submission process, etc.

      Maybe and just maybe some select KDE components may end up in Qt but that can legally only happen if Nokia moves away from the currently mandatory "right to relicense" (not the same as copyright assignment but similar in practical terms).

    2. Re:What about Qt? by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The idea was to merge the parts that would be usefull in Qt, so that answers the questions: Yes, for the parts that makes sense it would be a benefit: Better datetime classes, better config system, asynchronous IO, MIME parsing etc.

      It is also obvious that some parts of kdelibs (especially runtime parts, such as ), really wouldn't make sense in Qt anyway.

  3. God no by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

    After seeing the last attempt at cooperation over Phonon - which was half-implemented in Qt, then Nokia went with Qt Multimedia while KDE continued evolving Phonon but all the new things aren't in Qt I wouldn't want them to try. Some of the functionality that exists on the KDE layer should be pushed down into Qt, but most should stay out otherwise there will be far too much platform in the toolkit.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  4. Oh, hey, look -- by aussersterne · · Score: 4, Insightful

    KDE considers yet another massive reorganization and new version! Certainly this won't affect usability or the long term future of the project at all, just like the transition from KDE3 to KDE4 didn't!

    --
    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
  5. 3 phases of software by MrEricSir · · Score: 5, Informative

    Basically, there's three phases of software:

    1. Software that's in development. Sure, there's bad decisions made, but at least things are changing. After a decade of neglect, Windows seems to be back in development mode. KDE is definitely in development mode. Developers love this, because nothing has to be "finished" or "bug free." Everything can be a quickly hacked-together proof of concept.

    2. Software that's in support mode. Almost nothing happens, except for a few patches. Mac OS X seems to be in support mode these days, same with Gnome. Support mode is actually a good thing for users who are used to the product, but developers will get bored.

    3. Software that's dead. No patches, the developers abandoned the project. Eventually the users will disappear as well.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
  6. Not yet... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about they fix the steaming bloat-fest that is KDE4 before thinking about KDE5?

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  7. Re:No! by da+cog · · Score: 4, Funny

    Qt is working on modularizing itself. So you could just not compile the bits you don't want.

    Dear lord, it has already become alive and self-modifying? Someone shut it down before it's too late!

    --
    Snarkiness is inversely proportional to wisdom because it emphasizes feeling right rather than being right.